


Stalking 101: Never Double Tap

by yayalovesyou



Category: Good Girls (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-17
Updated: 2019-04-17
Packaged: 2020-01-15 08:58:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18495646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yayalovesyou/pseuds/yayalovesyou
Summary: "I'm on Facebook, too."After seeing Rio hug another woman, Beth spirals and enlists the help of Annie and Ruby to cyber-stalk him. What should've happened in 2x06.





	Stalking 101: Never Double Tap

**Author's Note:**

> So a week-ish ago, I posted on Tumblr that we deserve a scene where Beth and the ladies stalk Rio since he said he has a Facebook. And because I have no self control, here we are.

Beth isn’t really proud of what she was doing. It was crazy. It was immature. It was petty and stupid and juvenile, but she didn’t even care.

She was currently cyberstalking Rio (and trying to identify the woman he hugged) over a bottle of bourbon with Annie and Ruby. And she had absolutely no shame. They had been at it all morning, to no avail, but Beth was determined. She needed to know if Rio had a girlfriend, or a wife. Or a consistent fuck buddy.

“There are like, five million people named Rio on Facebook,” Annie said. “We’re never going to find him.”

“Well did you limit your search to just Detroit?” Beth asked, not taking her eyes away from her cell phone.

“Yeah. Should we open it to all of Michigan?” Ruby asked.

“Smart. I like your line of thinking.”

“What are we even looking for? We don’t know the man’s last name,” Annie pointed. “Hell, is Rio even his real first name?”

Beth dropped her phone onto her kitchen counter, and sighed. She didn’t even think of that. “Shit, you’re right.”

“Maybe it’s a sign that we shouldn’t be stalking your criminal fuck buddy,” Ruby quipped. “Besides, we have to get the kids to soccer practice.”

Beth chose to ignore her friend’s logical suggestion. She was too far gone to just turn back around and quit.

Then it dawned on her. If she couldn’t find out the information on her own, she could outsource. “Emma!” She called into the living room. “Emma, sweetie, can you come here please?”

“Coming mommy!” Emma’s high pitched voice called back. Within seconds, Beth could hear her enter the kitchen.

“Sweetheart, you remember mommy’s friend from the park? The one with the big bird on his neck?”

Emma nodded. “Yes.”

“His son plays on your soccer team, right?”

“Yes, his name is Marcus,” Emma replied, looking around the room. She had a one track mind and she was already losing interest in the conversation.

“Well when you go to soccer practice, I need you to do me a big big big favor. I need you to ask Marcus what his daddy’s name is, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Go get your stuff. Daddy is going to take all of you guys to soccer practice. And he’s getting you ice cream afterwards.”

“Yay!” Emma scurried off back into the living room with the other kids. Beth turned back to Annie and Ruby who were staring at her, incredulously.

“What?”

“I know you are not making my 6 year old niece do recon for you!” Annie hissed. “At _soccer practice_ , no less.”

_“_ I’m using my resources wisely,” Beth corrected. “It’s smart.”

“It’s insane,” Annie argued.

“Our girl is dickmatized,” Ruby said with a shrug.

Beth scoffed. “No, I’m not.”

“Any grown ass woman who sends her child to spy on the child of the man she’s screwing is clearly dickmatized. And jealous.”

Annie picked up her tumbler and nodded. “Amen.”

“I am not jealous!” Beth protested.

“You know, you never answered my question,” Ruby started. “Just how good was it? Clearly it had to be amazing for us to be doing all of this on a Saturday afternoon.” A scarlet blush spread across Beth’s cheek and she balked. “Oh it was suuuuper good.”

Annie leaned forward in excitement. “Spill it!”

“Our children are in the next room, I’m not discussing this with you.”

“Fine.” Ruby held her hands up in surrender. “I’ll drop it...for now.”

“Thank you.”

* * *

Hours later, Ruby and Annie were gone, and Beth had the house to herself. She managed to leave her cell phone alone and focus her energy into something more productive. She cleaned the entire house, did two loads of laundry, and put a pot roast in the oven.

Her sister and best friend were right. She was acting crazy. Beth needed to step back and regroup.

The quiet was soon gone as Beth heard the front door open, followed by her children’s laughter.

“We’re home!” Dean announced.

“I’m in the kitchen!”

Emma came barreling back into the kitchen, a sweaty and muddy mess from soccer practice. “Mommy, mommy! Guess what?”

“What is it, angel?”

“I scored a goal today!” Emma announced proudly.

“That’s amazing.”

“I was the first one to score a goal. My coach said I was awesome.”

“You are awesome,” Beth agreed, dropping a kiss onto her daughter’s forehead. There was nothing she loved more than seeing her kids happy.

“And I talked to Marcus today,” Emma added. “He told me his daddy’s name.”

Beth froze. She had almost forgotten about the task she assigned her youngest child. “Oh yeah? What is it?”

“He said his name is Rio Molasses.”

“Molasses?” The thick syrupy liquid? “Baby, are you sure he said that?”

Jane nodded emphatically. “Yes! Just like Spider-Man!”

Now Beth was completely lost. Spider-Man? Molasses? What was the connection?

“Okay sweetie, thank you. Now go get washed up for dinner.” Emma ran off, up the stairs, leaving Beth alone.

That was a bust. And a clear sign that stalking Rio wasn’t meant to be. So she was back to square one.

 

* * *

A week later, the ladies were sitting around Beth’s dining room table, sorting all of Rio’s pills into their designated containers when Ruby brought it up.

“So how’s the stalking going? Were you able to squeeze any information out of Emma?” She asked.

Beth sighed and dropped the pills she was holding into their appropriate box. “No. She told me his name is Rio Molasses.”

Annie laughed. “Yeah, because that makes sense.”

“You guys were right, I was being crazy. Roping Emma into my plan was definitely my rock bottom.”

“We get it. Good sex will do that to you.”

Beth nodded in agreement. “Yeah.”

“Aha!” Annie exclaimed. “I got you!”

“What are you talking about?” Beth asked with a raised eyebrow.

“So you agree that it was good sex?”

“If you guys really must know, yes, it was good. Great, even.”

“Where’d you guys do it?”

“Drop it, Annie.”

“Is he a hair puller? He looks like a hair puller. Do you have hickeys? Did he go down on you?”

Beth shook her head. “You guys don’t get any more information. Stop asking questions. It was good, but it was a one time thing, and I’d like to move on.”

Annie leaned back in her chair with a pout. “Fine.”

A few minutes of silence passed, but it was quickly interrupted by Beth’s laugh. “You guys want to know what was so funny? Emma said the weirdest thing when I talked to her about Rio. She said his name was like Spider-Man,” Beth continued with a chuckled. “How does Molasses correlate to Peter Parker? Or Toby Maguire?”

Annie rolled her eyes. “There’s been like, a million Spider Men since Toby Maguire. Andrew Garfield, Tom Holland.”

“Really?”

“Keep up, sis. There was even an animated version of Spider-Man. Not Peter Parker though, a different version of Spider-Man. Cute little kid, I think his name is Miles Morales.”

Beth’s head snapped up. “What? What‘s his name?”

“Miles Morales,” Annie repeated. She could practically see the wheels turning and clicking in Beth’s head. “Oh no. No, no, Beth. You said you moved on, you said you’re past this.”

Beth ignored Annie and pulled her cell phone out of her back pocket. She quickly typed the name _Rio Morales_ into her FaceBook. Within seconds, Beth saw Rio’s picture pop up on her screen. “I found him!”

Ruby got out of her seat. “I’ll go get the wine. I have a feeling we’re going to be here for a while.”

Beth barely heard Ruby talk as she started scrolling through the page. It was pretty empty, with Rio mostly getting tagged in stuff by random people.

“Go see if he has any information in his bio,” Annie ordered.

“Okay.”

His bio was pretty empty, except for the high school he went to.

Annie gasped. “He’s 35 years old?”

“What?”

Annie pointed to the screen. “Look. Graduated Central High School in 2002.”

“No way,” Ruby said as she re-entered the kitchen, a bottle of wine and 3 glasses in hand. “He’s not that much younger than us. What else does it say about him?”

“That’s it.”

Annie grabbed the cell phone from Beth and studied the page on her own. “Let a master take over.”

Annie found Rio’s pictures and clicked on the first one she saw. It was a picture of him, standing next to a petite woman. She was older, slightly getting at her temples, but she was still beautiful. She was wearing the same smirk that Rio always donned, and they looked identical.

“Is that his mom?” Ruby asked, craning her neck to get a look at the phone.

Beth nodded. “Looks like it.”

“She’s pretty. She looks like him.”

“She looks _just_ like him.”

Annie scrolled through more pictures. Nothing of major importance, until they stumbled upon a picture of a young Rio with his arm around a woman, wearing a cap and gown and holding a diploma. They were both breaming with happiness. Beth didn’t think she’d ever seen Rio smile so brightly before.

The picture was captioned: _Baby sis got her Ph.D in microbiology. Introducing Dr. Morales._

“He has a sister? And she’s a fucking genius.”

“He has more than one sister, _”_ Annie continued, scrolling to the next picture. It was another picture of the graduation, this time Rio was flanked by two more women. Simply captioned _Hermanas_. “God, is everyone in this family ridiculously attractive?”

“Apparently.”

“It’s not fair.”

Annie clicked on the face of one of his sisters to see if Rio tagged her. Thankfully he did. Her name was Elena.

She exited out of Beth’s Facebook app, much to her older sister’s dismay. “Hey! What are you doing?”

“We move on to phase 2: Instagram. Let’s see if his sister has one.”

Annie opened the app and typed Elena’s name into the search bar. After a bit of searching, Annie quickly found her username: _el_moralesphd_

The woman had tons of pictures. Beth was able to surmise that the younger woman was a newlywed and a new mom to an adorable baby girl. She frequently attended University of Michigan football games, and worked in some sort of medical lab.

“How is Rio’s sister so smart and perfect, and he’s...well, Rio? Where’s the disconnect?”

“Crazy, right? There’s like this completely different side of him, a normal one.”

“Look!” Annie announced. She stumbled upon a picture of the little boy Rio had with them in the park all those months ago. With the same woman they saw him hug in the parking lot.

“What’s the caption say?” Ruby asked.

“My sweet baby nephew and his mom came to visit me at work. I love them.”

“That’s his baby mama,” Annie said.

Beth stared at the picture. The woman was beautiful, with her glowing tan skin and curly hair.

“Well now we know who she is,” Ruby said slowly. “Mission: accomplished.”

Beth clicked on the woman’s username, which took them to her profile. “Her name is Dylan.”

Beth scrolled through her page. It was mostly pictures of Marcus. Marcus at his soccer games (how had Beth not noticed her before?), Marcus at school recitals, Marcus losing his first tooth. Occasionally she posted a few selfies, but the page didn’t reveal much about her.

“Wait,” Ruby ordered. “Click on the picture of those flowers.”

Beth did what Ruby told her to. It was a picture of a gorgeous arrangement of orange roses, sunflowers, and marigolds. It was captioned, ‘ _Baby daddy did a good job for Mother’s Day. Now I have to get him something nice, lol’_ followed by a string of heart eye and kissing emojis.

“I think she tagged him,” Ruby said. “Click on that.”

Beth clicked on the tag and it did indeed take them to Rio’s profile. She noticed instantly that he posted a lot of food pictures: shrimp potstickers, lobster bisque, jerk chicken, petite filets, Detroit style hot dogs, and more.

“How does he eat so much and stay so little?” Annie asked, mostly to herself. “And the man basically moonlights as a food blogger.”

Another picture that stood out to Beth was one of Rio standing behind a bar, a towel draped on his shoulder. He was smiling. ‘ _Officially open for business_ ’ was the caption.

Beth’s eyes widened. She knew that bar, all too well. “No way. He owns that place?”

“What, have you been there?”

“Yeah.” Beth’s cheeks went bright red. Oh she’d been there all right. “That’s the place. That’s the bar where he and I...” Not wanting to verbalize it, Beth coughed awkwardly and smashed her hands together.

“Ooh, did you guys do it _on_ the bar?” Annie asked. “Did you lick tequila and lime juice off his abs?”

“No. Now stop asking, I’m not telling you any more.”

“You’re no fun,” Annie whined.

Beth chose not to respond to her sister and drowned out the sound of her voice. She didn’t see any signs of this Dylan woman on Rio’s page. Was that a good thing? Maybe they weren’t together. Or was he just good at keeping his private life, private?

She didn’t even realize she went through his entire Instagram until she scroll any more. Now all that was left was the first picture Rio had ever posted.

Her breath caught in her throat as she looked at it. It was a picture of a shirtless Rio, holding a newly born Marcus. From the background, it looked like they were still in the hospital and Rio was doing skin-to-skin with the baby.

Even though the picture was only 6 years old, Beth couldn’t believe how young Rio looked. Maybe it was because he was at his most vulnerable moment, there was no need for him to be intimidating and carry the weight of the world.

And he looked so...at peace. She’d never seen him in such a state. It almost felt unreal.

What brought her out of her own head was a loud shriek of terror from Annie. “Oh my God!”

“What?”

“Beth, you just liked this picture!”

Beth looked down at the screen and in that moment, she wanted the earth to open up and swallow her whole. Her thumb was hovering right under the picture was a little red heart, signaling that she did like the picture.

“Are you crazy? Why would you do that?”

“I didn’t mean to,” Beth argued. “I just...I don’t know, I got caught up.” She quickly unliked the picture.

“You liked a picture from 6 years ago,” Annie said in abject horror. “That’s literally the worst thing you could do.”

Beth frowned. “Annie, you aren’t making me feel better!"

“Oh my God, why didn’t we do this from make fake backup account?” Annie rambled. “Now he’s going to know we were lurking. Past lurking, hell, we were straight up stalking!”

The women got extremely silent, almost as if they were afraid to make another move.

After what felt like forever, Ruby spoke up, “She un-liked the picture. Maybe he won’t even notice.” She was always trying to be the optimist. And they loved her for it, but nothing could settle the dread quickly filling Beth’s stomach.

“Here’s hoping.”

Beth dropped the phone onto the table. She didn’t want anything to do with it, didn’t want to mess up again.

Grabbing the bottle of wine Ruby brought out to them earlier, Beth stood up and left the dining room table.

“Beth, where are you going?”

“I’m going to curl into fetal position in my bathtub, drink this bottle of wine and try not to die from humiliation.”

* * *

They had a drop the next day, but Beth chose not to go. She wasn’t ready to face Rio.

Thankfully the kids were with Dean and his parents for the day, probably somewhere eating copious amounts of junk food. Another activity she chose to opt out of. She didn’t want to be around Dean’s horrible mother.

Instead Beth went to store, and bought a new bottle of bourbon and a pint of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. Her plans were to burrow deep into bed and take a nap. Or maybe burrow deep into her couch and catch up on all of the trashy reality TV she had been missing.

As soon as she made it back home, she felt him, his energy. It was intense and made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She hated that she even knew this, that he was able to get such a visceral reaction out of her without much effort. They were too in tune with each other.

Rio wasn’t in her kitchen though. So she tried his next favorite destination: her backyard. But he wasn’t there either.

Maybe he wasn’t there after all. Maybe Beth was just too on edge about what happened the day before and everything was making her paranoid.

Shaking off her thoughts, Beth made her way to her bedroom. Before she could even fully step foot into her room, she saw him. Standing in front of her armoire, like he owned the place.

“What are you doing here?” Beth asked.

“Came to check up on you,” Rio said simply. “You didn’t come to the drop this morning.”

“Didn’t feel good.”

“You sick?”

“Yeah.”

“You don’t look so sick to me. And our line of work doesn’t offer sick time.”

Beth rolled her eyes at him. “Did Annie and Ruby deliver?”

“Yes.”

“Did anything go wrong?”

“No.”

“Then leave me alone,” Beth snapped, shrugging off her coat.

“You’re so touchy today,” Rio tsked. “What gives you the right to have an attitude with the guy you were cyberstalking less than 24 hours ago?”

Beth froze. Fuck, he knew.

She stammered, trying to think of a lie or some sort of explanation, while Rio just stood there, amused.

“So you saw?”

Rio nodded. “Yeah. You aren’t as stealth as you think.” He chuckled, mostly to himself. “And you liked the very first picture I posted? On your personal account? Oh Elizabeth, how amateur.”

“I slipped up.”

“How did you even find my Instagram in the first place?” Rio questioned. “My name isn’t attached to my username. You must’ve had to do some really deep digging.”

Beth would rather die than admit she employed her daughter to question his son for his last name, stalk his Facebook, lurk on his sister’s page, followed by his baby mama. So instead she coolly said, “I have my ways.”

“Right. Find out anything interesting?”

“Your sisters and mom all seem lovely. And surprisingly normal.” Beth’s lip quirked up sarcastically. “What happened to you?”

“Someone had to bite the bullet and make sure they were taken care of. I do what I do to ensure that they’re financially secure.”

“You own a bar,” Beth continued. “ _That_ bar.”

Rio nodded. “Yeah, it’s been open for 4 years now. I try to peak my head in at least twice times a week. You want to know about some of my other legit businesses? I have a car wash down on Main Street. I also invested in the Mexican restaurant my sister owns downtown.”

“No, that’s enough.”

“Why were you on this little research mission in the first place?”

“I wanted to know who I was dealing with.”

“I didn’t know business partners have the right to each other’s personal lives. You want my grandmother’s maiden name as well?”

“Oh please, do not lecture me about respecting boundaries while literally being an uninvited guest in my bedroom.”

That got him to shut up. Rio’s jaw clenched angrily at being bested, but he held it together. He could admit she made a good point. “Touché.”

“You want to be just business partners? Have boundaries? Fine. But no more flirting with me, no more double entendres, no more touching me, no more sex, especially since–“

“Since what?”

“Does your girlfriend know just how much time you spend with me?”

Rio arched an eyebrow at the question. “Excuse me? My what?”

“The special lady friend you had me deliver a car to Cloud 9 for. That’s your son’s mother, Dylan, right? And you guys were...incredibly affectionate. I don’t nuzzle my friends on the neck when I greet them.”

“What’s your point?”

“My point is you don’t get to make me your side piece. I’m not a home wrecker.”

Rio laughed at her. Loudly. Obnoxiously. He laughed so hard, he actually doubled over with aches in his stomach.

That only pissed Beth off further. How dare he laugh at her? “What is so funny?”

“Its so cute when you take the moral high ground. I’m not the one who’s _married,_ sweetheart. Took vows before God in a church, and all that.”

“That doesn’t count.”

“Of course. Nothing ever counts when it applies to you, because you’re the special snowflake.”

Beth flinched. She didn’t like his tone.

“I’m married in name only,” Beth shot back. “It’d be kind of shitty to divorce a man who is recovering from a gunshot wound to the chest. And on top of everything else, it just really hasn’t been high up on my priority list. Besides this isn’t about me, this is about you. I never pegged you as a cheater.”

“Because I’m not.”

“So what do you call what we did at the bar?”

“Oh it was sex alright. But it wasn’t cheating, at least not on my part. I’m single.”

“What?”

“Dylan is my son’s mother, you got that part right. But we haven’t been together in years. We broke up when Marcus was 1. Her car got totaled in an accident, so I did her a favor and got her a new one.”

Beth gaped, and opened her mouth to argue but no words came out, and she fully knew she looked like a fish, repeatedly opening and closing her mouth.

“We still have a great relationship, so I don’t even notice when I’m a little too tactile with her, or vice versa.”

“So you guys aren’t together?”

Rio shook his head. “No.”

“Oh.”

Rio pushed himself off of the armoire and strode closer to Beth. “But why do you care so much?”

“I don’t know.”

“Yes you do, don’t lie to me.”

“I didn’t like the idea of being your little play thing,” Beth explained. “Your dirty little secret.”

“Why?”

“Because I thought you at least respected me a little bit. And when I saw you with her, I felt disrespected. And lied to. And it hurt.”

Rio reached out and tucked a strand of Beth’s hair behind her ear. His finger slowly trailed along her until he reached her chin. “There’s no one else, Elizabeth. It’s just you.”

Beth’s breath caught in her throat at the contact. Sure he’d been in her space and touched her before, but this felt different. Softer. No ulterior motives, no looming threat, just him.

Without much thought, Beth leaned forward on her tiptoes and pressed a kiss on his lips. Just as quickly as she kissed him, she pulled away, her feet firmly planting themselves back onto the carpeted floor.

She looked up at him, slowly, trying to brace herself for whatever reaction he might have. He was staring down at her, his eyes darker than she’d even seen them.

They didn’t move for what felt like the longest time. Beth was sure Rio could probably hear her heart hammering against her chest. She couldn’t believe she just did that.

Before she could even open her mouth to explain why she just did that, Rio lunged forward and kissed her. The ferocity nearly knocked Beth over and she had to grab the back of Rio’s neck to steady herself.

Beth almost hated to admit it, but Rio was a good kisser. Not that she had much experience to compare him too, but her first kiss in 7th grade ended with a cut on her lip due to Timmy Malone’s braces, Sam Dawson in 9th grade used way too much saliva, and Dean was always so stiff and chaste. But Rio...Rio was a completely different beast. His lips were incredibly soft and he tasted like cinnamon, and the kiss was firm without being too aggressive.

She couldn’t remember the last time she actually kissed someone. It was such a simple, yet intimate act and it was kind of saddening that she she could not recall the last time her own husband kissed her.

She was brought out of her thoughts by Rio slipping a hand to her waist and the other going to the back of her neck, pulling her flush against him. She gasped and he took the opportunity to slide his tongue into her mouth.

Beth groaned at the contact and she could actually _feel_ Rio smirking through the kiss. Of course he’d still have time to be cocky in a moment like this. She pulled back a little and captured his bottom lip in between her own, eliciting a moan of approval. She smirked back. Two could play that game.

But the leveled playing field didn’t last long because before she could react, Beth was pushed onto the bed, the soft duvet hitting her back. Rio was hovering on top of her, searching her eyes, looking for the go-ahead to move forward. She reached up and grabbed his face between her hands, pulling him down to her.

This kiss was different. Not as tentative as their first, and not as urgent as their second, but just as intense.

Rio reached down and tugged at Beth’s blouse, untucking it from her pants. Within seconds, his hands were under her shirt, fingers on her stomach and she gasped at how warm his skin was. Goose bumps broke out on every inch of skin he could get his hands on.

He broke the kiss, leaving a trail of them on her jaw and down her neck, settling on her collarbone. He bit down, hard, breaking skin. He wanted to leave a mark. Beth hissed loudly, and clamped down on Rio’s shoulder. “Fuck!”

The sound that came out of her mouth should’ve been illegal, but Rio pushed the though aside. He couldn’t get too caught up. He was on a mission. “Sorry sweetheart, I’ll kiss it better for you.”

Rio ran his tongue along the skin that was already forming a bright red bruise. Using his free hand, he tugged open her blouse, not caring if he ripped the buttons, which he did. Beth didn’t care either.

With her shirt tugged open, Rio continued his trail until he reached her breast. He gently nipped at the lace-covered flesh, and Beth arched into him, bringing them closer, as if that was possible.

“Rio...”

He stopped what he was doing to look up at Beth through his hooded lids. Her eyes were closed, head thrown back, and her back arched.“What do you want?”

“You,” Beth groaned.

“What do you want me to do?” He asked, his voice dropping an octave lower.

“Touch me. Please.”

Rio stood and Beth frowned at the loss of contact, but she didn’t dare move. He stood back and quietly observed her, like a hungry predator stalking its prey.

Finally, he shook his head. “No.”

Beth’s eyes snapped open at the word. She sat up abruptly. “What?”

“No,” Rio repeated. “I’m not sleeping with a married woman. I don’t want to be your little play thing, or your...dirty little secret. I want you to respect me.”

If looks could kill, Rio would’ve been 6 feet under with the harsh glare Beth was throwing his way. How dare he throw her words back in her face?

“You already slept with me,” Beth pointed out. “Isn’t it a little too late to care about your morality?”

“It’s never too late. So as long as you’re married, I’ll be the pinnacle of professionalism. No flirting, no touching, nothing.”

Beth didn’t know if she wanted to cry, scream or kill him. Maybe a combination of all three.

Rio saw the confusion and irritation etched across Beth’s face. He laughed softly. “Don’t look so miserable, darling. Divorce isn't that hard, my older sister's done it 3 times.”

“You got me all riled up to do...this? Leave me frustrated?”

“It wasn’t my original plan, but the opportunity presented itself.” Rio lifted his wrist and checked the time on his watch. “I have to go?”

“You’re seriously leaving? You had a topless woman under you in bed, and you’re leaving?” Beth knew she was teetering dangerously close to begging territory, but her dignity was already shot to Hell at this point.

“Yeah, I gotta go meet Carlos at the warehouse.” He gave Beth a cool once-over, taking in her confused gaze. He took a step forward so he was at the edge of the bed. He bent down and grabbed her by the chin, forcing her to look up at him. Instead of kissing her on the mouth, he swerved and dropped a chaste kiss to her temple. “See you soon, _Missus_ Boland.”

Beth’s jaw clenched. She was going to murder him.


End file.
